Cristiana Dell’Anna was born in Naples, Italy, to Lidia Albero, a school teacher and Ettore Dell’Anna, a surgeon. Second of three children, she was expected to follow her father’s footstep and become a doctor, but her call for acting pushed her to follow her dreams and move to London at the age of 20 to study drama at the highly acclaimed Drama Studio London (DSL).
Bilingual since the age of 10, she began her acting career in London, debuting on stage in an English adaptation of the famous Italian play “A Woman Alone” – a fringe production that earned her the attention of London’s Time Out Magazine.
When they were both graduating students, Dell’Anna was given the lead role in Moths – the award winning first short film by acclaimed director Rose Glass (Saint Maud). Before moving back to Italy to start shooting the HBO Max hit series, “Gomorrah,” Dell’Anna also appeared in “Third Contact” a critically acclaimed psychological thriller that had its world premiere at the BFI IMAX in 2013.
Her role as ‘Patrizia’ in Gomorrah – streaming on Amazon Prime in the US and Canada – has brought her international success, the series being sold to 190 countries around the world.
Her latest Netflix movie “Toscana,” in which she plays the female lead, was the most watched film in the world for two consecutive weeks at the end of March 2022.
In 2021, she played ‘Luisa De Filippo’ opposite Tony Servillo, as ‘Eduardo Scarpetta,’ in “The King of Laughter,” directed by Mario Martone. For her portrayal of a fragile woman in love with a man who would not legally recognize their children, she was nominated for a David di Donatello Award as Best Supporting Actress. Dell’Anna won the Ciak d’Oro award in 2022.
She also appeared in Paolo Sorrentino’s Oscar nominated film “The Hand of God.” Initially her role, although just a cameo, was written for an older woman, but when Paolo Sorrentino saw her, he insisted on having her in the cast and changed the schedule to meticulously accommodate her aging through the schedule of film.
Just recently, her talent did not go unnoticed by famous casting director Denise Chamian, who thought her perfect for the lead role in the up-coming US independent feature “Cabrini.” In “Cabrini,” Dell’Anna stars on the big screen across the world as an Italian nun who fought for equal rights in the New York of the late 1800s. The film, which boasts a stellar international cast, also stars John Lithgow and David Morse. It focuses in on female empowerment and on the very contemporary issues of immigration and assimilation.
Upcoming, Cristiana will star in the Italian Netflix series “Storia della mia Famiglia.” Written by Filippo Gravino and Elisa Dondi, and directed by Claudio Cupellini, the drama follows a man on the last day of his life.
